A far cry from reality (The Husband - Dean Koontz)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	The Husband - Dean Koontz
Date:	28/12/07 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a gripping read

Disadvantages: poor ending

I've had my eye out for The Husband by Dean Koontz for a while now, and yesterday it dropped onto my doormat courtesy of Bookhopper.com. (the best things in life really are free.
I have to admit I was intrigued to read the book after hearing the general gist of the plot outline from another review.

Basically I was caught by the book by hearing of a gardener named Mitch Rafferty, who earns a five figure income running his own business. Mitch is expected to come up with 2 million dollars within sixty hours as a ransom for his wife.
Sounds straight forward enough doesn't it! This must be the general day to day happenings of kidnappers everywhere just randomly picking on targets for financial gain.

All of this happens in the first few pages of the book, and of course sets the trend for the whole of the book, all of 400 pages of it. The whole story is given sixty hours to unfold, but in fact doesn't take that long, with the book spanning no more than thirty six hours. Given this fact, a lot of detail goes into each minute of the day as it passes within the plot.

I'm not going to give the plot, ending etc away but will give you a quick rundown of challenges Mitch has to face just to get his wife back.
Of course the kidnappers would not be kidnappers unless they were extremely clever and could track Mitch on every step of his way. This includes a lot of leading questions, and doubt filling by the kidnappers towards Mitch so he really and truly doesn't know who to turn to or who to trust.
They have also very cleverly set Mitch up as the fall guy if anything were to go wrong. All leads from the police would go straight to Mitch and it would appear that he had killed his wife, therefore letting the true murderers off the hook.

Mitch finds himself dealing with circumstances he has only read about in books or watched on TV, from hijacking cars to speeding, even down to dealing with bodies.
This part of the plot almost makes me wonder where fantasy and the real life reality grasp ends. A plot can be taken in any way the author chooses, but sometimes it can go a little too far from normality, considering the life the character has been portrayed to have prior to all these events happening.

The main twists and turns, and there are many in this plot I assure you, are in fact very cleverly done. I was easily believing the connections being made for the majority of the book.
The book is mainly focused on Mitch although sometimes we are taken away to visit with his wife or even the kidnappers. I find when books switch from character to character all the time, I lose track of what is happening, and thankfully this doesn't have a chance to do that here.

Of course we come to an ending, and every book must have one, whether it's happy or sad. I really wasn't sure which outcome this book was going to have until we got there, but I have to admit the ending was let down by the rest of the book in a huge way. Nothing was explained properly as the aftermath, and it's left me wondering about all the little questions I want answers to.
With such a big build up to the climax, unfortunately it was an anti climax at the end.

In relation to other Dean koontz books, I have to admit to finding his latest books compare better than his older work. Some of his older work went on twists and turns in a way I could never keep up. The Husband, like his more recent work, is told in a much clearer manner, and makes following the plot very easy.

As I mentioned I only received this book yesterday and have finished it already. I'm not always a fast reader, but admittedly this book did grip me like only some can. Well worth the read if you're into thrillers.

Price - £5.99 (I got it free)
ISBN - 0-00-723183-0
Published - 2006

Please note this review is also posted on Ciao where I am a member.

Summary: an ok read